


The Man and the Maskmaker

by traveltigress



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Multi, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-01-20 01:03:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12421797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traveltigress/pseuds/traveltigress
Summary: The Vault of the Sentinel is open, Jack's face is disfigured and you are the first person he comes across. Despite your better judgement you decide to help him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to keep the reader as gender neutral as possible. Enjoy!

You hear light footfalls behind you. When you turn, you see a hooded woman sauntering towards you carrying an energy shield. She looks dangerous and more than a little pissed off. Tersely, she says, “Hey you! There’s a man back there with burns on his face. Get him a doctor.” You stand silently in shock as the woman walks past you, then kept walking. She didn’t seem to care too much about this man whoever he might be. Before you could even ask a question, she called a vehicle and drove away.

You walk for almost half an hour until you find the man. He was determinedly shuffling toward the exit, propping himself up on the wall for support. His head shoots up as you approach him showing a giant upside-down V shaped burn across his face. You rush to help support him and take him to the nearest fast travel station where he mumbles a “Thanks, cupcake,” in gratitude.

He promptly passes out once you get to your clinic and lay him down on an examination table. You hook him up to some fluids and hunker down for the daunting task of cleaning the wound of debris. As you pick out the small shards of metal and rinsed the dust away he awoke. Slowly and groggily at first, then started awake with a gasp almost head-butting you in the face. “Where the fuck am I?” he asks.

“You’re in Concordia, in my clinic-”

He grabs your wrist and squeezes it tight, “Tell me that nobody knows I’m here,” he growls.

You pause, nervous about the frantic alarm in his voice, but quickly reply, “No one knows you’re here. It was very late when I fast traveled here, and a short walk from the station.”

“Ok. Good, sweetcheeks,” he says relaxing and letting go of your arm then putting on a charming smile and says, “I have to say, it’s always nice to wake up with a pretty face in front of you.”

You can feel the color rising in your cheeks, stifling it down you deflect, “I’m ______ by the way. And you are?”

You see his chest fill with pride and ego, “Jack. As in the great savior of Elpis and Helios. Vanquisher of the Last Legion. Conqueror of the Vault of the Sentinel.”

“Oh, that was you? Well, thanks for saving us I guess,” you say with a shrug.

“Yep, that was all me.” You could tell that he was a little put out by your response, but you never saw him running around Concordia, just the vault hunters. “So Doc, what’s my prognosis? Am I going to live?” he joked.

You giggled, “Yes you are going to live. You sustained some major burns, but nothing I can’t handle. Although you may want to think about what you want to do about your eye. I can make a surface implant to restore your sight, or you could get a cybernetic one.”

“A cybernetic one would be kinda cool, but I’m pretty sure they don’t come in green. But more importantly what am I going to do about all of this mess?” he asks gesturing franticly to his face.

“I could make a prosthesis to cover the majority of your face,” you suggest. “It would be made of a thin sheet of molded psudeoskin and would look almost natural. I could also attach it to a surface eye implant to make it even more natural.”

“Oh, nice. That sounds like a good option, pumpkin. How long until I can get it and go? I’m on a bit of a tight schedule.”

You chuckle, “Woah, slow down there! It will take at least a few days for the burns to heal, and a few days more to get the prosthesis manufactured and fitted.”   
He grumbles something about a “traitorous, backstabbing bitch” then sighs, “Fine then. Just make sure nobody knows I’m here, kiddo.”

“I can do that,” you reply with a smile. “Now stop moving around so much, I still have the rest of the burn to clean.” You lapse into comfortable, casual conversation until the wound is cleaned and dressed. Exhausted, you direct the both of you to bed just in time to see the sun starting to rise.

You awake the next morning to a loud banging at your door, “______! _______, are you there?” You rush to the door to find Lilith at your door with a very inebriated, bleeding man. “Here. Moxxi found him at the bar. I think he tripped and fell on a broken bottle. For some godforsaken reason, he didn’t want to see Nurse Nina, so I brought him here.”

“Thanks, Lilith. I’ll take care of him. I’ll see you around.” You notice her gaze flicker to the corner then harden. Looking there as well, you see that Jack had left his coat laying on a chair. Your eyes snap back to Lilith noticing that she has a burn mark on her hand that looks incredibly like the one on Jack’s face. Oh shit. You began to panic but she just says her goodbyes and goes on her way. Anxious, you turn back to the man brought to you, but he had already passed out on the table. On seeing that the wound was superficial you turn to go wake Jack, then run face first into him.

“I really hope I did not just hear the voice I thought I heard,” Jack growls looming over you, face dark with anger.

“I didn’t say a thing,” you plead, “She noticed your jacket on the chair and I think she recognized it.”

“Yeah, I know pumpkin, I overheard you two talking. She is probably getting Roland and others right now, we have to go.”

“Go? But-”

“No buts- except ours leaving this clinic right now. Grab some stuff if you need to, but we need to get to Helios right now.” Terrified you grab everything you can and run with Jack to the nearest fast travel station. He goes first then right as you are about to do the same you see Lilith and Roland, guns pointed right at you. You hit the button and are transported through blinding blue light then into the sterile industriousness that is Helios.

You lean against the cold metal wall, take a deep breath, and close your eyes. Opening them you begin to exclaim, “What the fu-” which Jack smothers with his hand.

“Not here!” he hisses and motions you to follow. He leads you down what seemed like endless, empty, grey hallways until you reached a small suite that turns out to be Jack’s living quarters. He ushers you in, then quickly shuts the door. “Now we can talk,” he says, “I don’t want just anyone to know that I’m back. Now, let’s get this mask thingy on.”

You let out an exasperated sigh, “I already told you, the burns need to heal for a few days before I can even begin to construct the prosthesis.”

“Aw c’mon, doc. I don’t have the time to wait that long. I have places to go, people to see.”

“All of which you can do after your burns are healed. I’m sure you can wait a few more days-”

“Wait, I have an idea,” he interjects and pulls up his ECHO to say, “Hey Wilhelm, it’s your old boy Jack here. Would you mind bringing up one of those new rapi-heal packs to my rooms?”

“Uh, yeah sure boss. When did you get back? We were expecting you hours ago.”

“Hit a bump in the road, amigo. Just get me that pack and tell no one that I’m here,” Jack says as he turns off his ECHO. 

Eventually you hear a heavy knock at the door and Jack asks you to get it. You open it to see a mountain of a man, or at least partly man, at the door. He holds out a small package which you take, then turns around and leaves. Weird.

You give the package to Jack who eagerly opens it then shoves the syringe inside into his neck. “What the fuck are you doing?!” you exclaim. He points at his face where the burn is healing… and turning blue? 

“Pretty cool, huh. It’s a healing prototype that will hopefully run Nurse Nina and Dr. Zed out of business,” he explains energetically.

“Is it supposed to turn blue?” you ask. He rushes over to the mirror and gives a deep scowl.

He growled, “No, cupcake. Whoever made this is going to pay. Dearly.”

“For what?” you say with a chuckle, “For you injecting yourself with an experimental prototype? I don’t think there is anyone to blame but you here. Come over here and let me see if it actually healed you at all.” He comes to you with an exaggerated pout on his lip, but lets you look at the wound. Or at least what used to be a wound. It looked like what you might expect from the burn a month from now. “Holy shit. It worked really well! And saved me a ton of work to boot! I mean, your face is now partly blue, but this is astounding.”

With his newly healed face you begin to assemble the prosthesis. Thankfully you grabbed all the important components, but you were still missing a few items. “Hey Jack, I’m going to need a few things. Some of them may be difficult to come by.”

“Ok, shoot,” he says. As you list the items you need, he begins to grimace, “Dear God you need some fancy stuff. Ugh, I’m going to need to call in Nisha for this one too. She’s not going to like this one bit, kiddo.” He dials up his two minions and tells them what he needs. As he predicted, neither of them are happy about it, but Jack assures them that he will let them in on his plans after they bring him the stuff.

This time when you open the door a woman with a cowboy hat pushes you aside and storms into the suite soon followed by Wilhelm. “Jack, what the ever-loving fuck is going on? Where have you fucking been this whole time, huh? And what in hell are you doing right now? Is it spa day?” Jack didn’t move a muscle at this tirade and instead reclined with the preparatory chemicals you had slathered on his face. Nisha glares at him waiting for a response as you gather the items they had brought and put the final touches on the prosthesis. As you work, Jack eventually fills both the mercenaries in on what is going on.

Finished, you turn back to him and say, “It’s done. I just need to put it on and place the anchors.” Jack nods in assent and you place the skin-like film onto his face. It immediately conforms to the curves of his face and with a bit of prodding covers over the burns like they were never there. “Ok, this is going to hurt. I’m going to place the anchors on your chin and temples. They will pierce into your skin and connect to the nerves which allows for the pseudo-skin to stay put and move like natural skin would.” Jack nodded again and you place the metal anchors. With each placement, he lets out a low grunt but otherwise does not show the pain that must be occurring.

Once that was complete you step back to allow Jack some time to adjust to the mask. He contorts his face, getting a feel for the new part of his body. He then goes over to the mirror and admires your handiwork. “Just as handsome as ever,” he says as he turns to approach you gun drawn. “I guess I don’t need you anymore.”

“Wait!” you cry, “The prosthesis is still a prototype. You may want me around for adjustments and upgrades!” 

At this he pauses, considering your offer when Nisha interjects, “Just kill her already.” You look back to Jack pleading for mercy through your eyes. 

Despite Nisha’s urging, he lowers his gun and says, “Hmm. I suppose you may be helpful in that regard… Oh, I know! You can be my personal assistant! Yes, that will be perfect especially since I’m about to get a promotion.” You breathe a sigh of relief, while being his assistant is not a dream job at least you’re not dead. He turns back to the mercenaries and with a smirk he rumbles, “And now it is time to make a visit to my dear boss, Mr. Tassiter.”

Jack, Nisha, Wilhelm, and you walk down the halls of Hyperion towards Tassiter’s office. As you walk, Jack is greeted like a hero by others in the hallway, you could almost see his ego inflating by the second. Once you eventually got to Tassiter’s office a guard stopped Jack with a hand on his chest. “Hyperion employees only. Your friends will have to wait outside,” he said with a slight shove.

“You want me to take him out, boss?” said Wilhelm raising his gun at the guard.

“No, no, kiddo. You and Nisha wait out here but don’t make any trouble, alright?” Jack goes to proceed, but is stopped once again. 

“Hyperion employees only,” the guard emphasized again with a pointed look at you. 

“She’s my PA, dude. She goes where I go,” says Jack with a hint of anger rising in his voice.

“Oh yeah,” shot back the guard, “then why is she carrying a gun?”

You could see Jack forming an explanation, but you interjected, “It’s not like I know how to use it. My dad just gave it to me as a parting gift. I barely know which side the bullet comes out of.” You take it out of the holster and peer down the barrel. Terrified but sufficiently convinced, the guard allows you to pass. 

Walking down the short hall to Tassiter’s office Jack whispers, “You do actually know how to use a gun, right?”

You chuckle and holster the gun with a flourish, “Of course I do. My dad used to be Dahl military.” You see a smirk crawl across his face, but before he can reply you get to the secretary’s desk. Ignoring the small woman’s protests, Jack strides into the office where you both are met with what looks like a board meeting. Immediately Tassiter’s eyes laser in on Jack and a deep scowl stretches across his already sagging face.

“What is the meaning of this, John?” Tassiter croaks.

“Well you see,” starts Jack, “I just returned from Elpis where I just opened a vault, after of course saving Helios from that Zarpe-chick. So I figured that I would come to see what my dear old boss has in store for me.” You could see the board members turn to look at Tassiter, clearly curious at what he would do about this insubordinate hero.

Tassiter sighed, “Fine, John. I was already planning on promoting you to be Chairman of Security, so you can have that. You will be answering directly to me, so don’t interrupt me like this again.”

“Why thank you Mr. President,” Jack said, voice dripping with venom, “I look forward to working with you.” At that Jack spun on his heel and stormed out of the office with you in tow. 

He raged silently until all four of you returned to his quarters where he shouted and started kicking things, “That motherfuckin’ lowlife creep only promoted me to be a chair! I just saved this entire shit pile of a space station and he barely promotes me? I should be president for what I’ve done, or at the very least vice president.” 

He carried on like that for several more tense minutes, tired of it you pipe up, “Then do something about it!” He focused his rage on you and started to advance towards you when Nisha of all people steps in his way.

“They’re right,” she said grabbing his wrist. “Stop whining and do something about it.” Jack pauses.

“Hmm. I guess you may be right. There has got to be a way I can take down Tassiter…” He thought for a moment until he lit up with an idea, “Oh I know! I take the board and all their shares out from under him! Ha! It’s brilliant! Just need to think up how to do that.” He paced back and forth for at least an hour muttering to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am best at writing fluff, so that is what you are going to get. Also I use "they" as the reader's pronouns to allow for some flexibility. Hope you enjoy and thanks for all the kudos!

A few minutes into Jack’s brainstorming the rest of you went off to do other activities. Wilhelm quickly fell asleep on the couch, Nisha took apart and cleaned her guns, and you decided to make everyone dinner since it was getting late and no one else seemed inclined to do so. Eventually, Jack stopped pacing and began to furiously write. Finished cooking, you bring plates to Nisha and Wilhelm who accept it gratefully- or at least as gratefully as they can. Nisha only gives a nod and Wilhelm almost bashes your brains in when you try to wake him up. Next you serve up a plate for Jack and yourself bringing it over to him. When you set the plate down beside him he starts and gives you an odd look.

“What? Did I do something wrong?” you ask.

“No, it’s just… Thank you. I was absorbed in my thinking.” You could tell that there was something more behind his response, but you decided not to press it. He really didn’t seem like someone you wanted to press.

“All right, everybody! Circle round! It’s time to listen to my brilliant plan,” shouted Jack a few minutes later. Nisha and Wilhelm grabbed their plates and joined you around the table. “Ok, ready for this? We, and by we I mean mostly me, are going to take down Tassiter.”

Nisha smirked, “Yeah, I think we already got that, genius.”

Jack gave her a glare then continued, “True, but now I have a plan to do it. First, we will need to call a devilishly handsome friend of mine to help. Then we will take down the board: Johnson, Williams, and Brown. Johnson is the easiest. Wilhelm and I just need to show up and threaten a bit of violence then he will tuck tail and hand over his shares. Williams will be a bit harder but Nisha will be able to easily work her charms on him. Then that leaves Brown. He will be the hardest to deal with since he is paranoid as hell. But I heard that he recently had a kid which we can use for… wait for it… leverage! I’ll sneak in and grab the baby from the company daycare, then use it for sweet, sweet leverage. Oh, and quick reminder don’t kill any of them until the shares are in my name. Alright?”

You could hear slight mumbles of assent from the vault hunters who quickly finished their meal then went off their separate ways. You turn to Jack to see if there is anything he wants you to do. Instead he goes on his ECHO and calls whoever this handsome friend of his is, then turns to you. “And I will need you to make another mask, pumpkin.”

“What? Why? Is there something wrong with this one?”

“No, nothing like that at least for now. My friend will need one.” Before you could ask for specification he asked, “Are you any good with babies? We will need someone to take care of the little bugger while we negotiate with Brown.”

“Uh, I guess I’m ok at it,” you respond.

“Great! Because I really suck at babies. Well I need to be getting to bed. We have an eventful day planned tomorrow.” He stood up and stretched, his arms reaching for the ceiling which showed a small sliver of his lean stomach. Noticing your gaze, he said with an eyebrow waggle, “Unless you would like to join me.”

“Nuh uh,” said Nisha behind you. “That’s my job.” She grabbed his lapels and pulled him into his room. Relieved that you did not have to respond, you found a comfortable looking couch with a few blankets and curled up to go to sleep.

The next morning you awoke to a knock at the door. Seeing that the rest of your companions were either absent or didn’t care enough, you got up to open it. When you opened the door, you are greeted by Jack. 

Wait, what? Does he not have the keys to his own place? On closer inspection, you notice that he does not have a mask and that there are no burns to speak of. “Jack?” you ask hesitantly.

“Oh, no I’m not I’m Tim-”

“Nu-uh. What did we say about that Timothy?” chides Jack from behind you. You swivel back and do a double take between the two almost identical men.

“Ah, yes. Timothy, this is _____. And ______ this is Timothy. He’s my body double, isn’t that super cool!” 

“I assume this is the handsome friend you needed to call in. Why in the world do you have a body double?” you ask.

“Because it’s super cool, duh. Also, he comes in handy when there is work that I don’t want to do, like now. Timothy, my bud, my pal, I need you to do any work that Tassiter throws my way, alright. Feel free to take as long as you want and be annoying, I mostly just need you to take calls and stuff.” Jack’s ECHO beeps as he looks at it his eyebrows quirk in surprise, “Wow, Nisha sure works fast, I already have Williams’ shares. I better go see Johnson with Wilhelm, so you need to case out the daycare facility for me.”

“Alright… what am I supposed to do?” you ask.

“Just scout around and watch their routines so I can get in and out easier. Oh, and here is a photo of thy little tyke.” He sends you a photo of a cute little brown haired baby of about six months with the label “Christine Brown” under it.

You nod and depart, unsure of what you are doing or even where you are going. You get lost several times and eventually need Timothy to help guide you. Once you get there you see a friendly looking receptionist you observe awkwardly in the corner until she catches your eye. She immediately zeroes in on you and calls out, “Excuse me, are you the new Child Support Specialist HR sent?” She rushes over to grab your arm and pull you deeper into the daycare chattering about how you are late but they are so happy to have you. She prattles on about how understaffed they are and quickly introduces you to the other three staff members. Suddenly the woman asks, “So what do you specialize in, dear?”

It takes you a few moments to catch up to her question and another second to think up a reply, “My background is in nursing. I have the most experience with infants, but I love to care for all ages of children.” You study her face for her reaction, nervous about saying the right thing. Apparently, she is ecstatic over the news and continues chattering about the day care while steering you towards the infant daycare. You see a single exhausted woman trying to care for four babies. The lady from the front desk briskly leaves you to help the poor woman. 

You see Christine crying and immediately, almost by instinct, go to comfort her. As you approach you hear the woman say, “Don’t bother with her, I’ve never been able to calm her.” But the moment you pick her up she instantly calms and clings to you. “Well that’s a new one,” said the woman incredulously. “Oh, I’m Mara by the way. And you are?” You state your name and start chatting with Mara waiting for Jack to give you some kind of signal. 

Eventually you hear your ECHO beep and ask, “Would it be ok for me to take this? It’s uh… probably… uh… my boyfriend.”

“Oh yes of course, sweetie. As long as you keep Christine happy you can do whatever you want. I would suggest going into the nap room, there should be no one in there.”

You nod in thanks and go to take the call, doing your best to avoid jostling the baby in your arms. “Jack? I may have infiltrated a bit too much. They think I work here now. I have the baby, but I doubt they would let me leave.”

“Oh, good job. I knew keeping you was a good idea. I’ll come get you, pumpkin.” At that the ECHO shuts off and you are left wondering, and worrying, what he might do.

As you wander back to Mara you start to hear the baritone of Jack’s voice from the other room. “So how did it go?” asked the woman clearly looking for some gossip. Right when you were about to reply you see Jack walk into the room. Upon seeing you, his eyes soften but the moment is broken when Mara exclaims, “You didn’t tell me that your boyfriend was Jack! As in the one who just saved us all!”

He quirked an eyebrow at you then quickly fell into the role by looping his arm around you and going in for what seemed like a quick peck on the lips. However, he quickly deepened it and even dared to tilt you back a bit so that you had to hold onto him. And it was probably the best kiss you’ve ever had. The feel of his strong arms holding you to his lean body sent warmth radiating into your cheeks. You pull away mumbling, “Don’t squish the baby,” but he still holds you close.

He casts his gaze over to Mara and croons, “You wouldn’t mind if I take her out to lunch, now would you?” as a hand travels down to your backside.

“Oh, don’t let me get in the way of you lovebirds. My only request is that you take the baby. They seem to have a way with her.”

“Oh don’t worry,” he says, “I find it kinda sexy.” You both turn to leave and grab Christine’s bag of supplies on the way, Jack keeping you in his embrace the whole way. 

Rounding the corner, Jack still keeps his arm snaked around your waist. Slightly reluctantly you say, “You know they can’t see us anymore. You don’t need to hold onto me.”

He leans in close to your ear where you can feel his hot breath tickle the skin, “But what if I want to?” Your blush returns with a vengeance as he pulls back to see your reaction.

Seeing your beet red face, he bursts out laughing, “Look at you! You’re as red as tomato! Ha! And the way you squirmed. Oh, it was hilarious.” You pull away as he wipes a mock tear from his eye. You know that it was all an act on both of your parts, but you can’t help but feel a bit disappointed at the loss of intimacy. He calms his laughter a bit then says, “In all seriousness we should check the kid and bag for trackers. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said Brown was paranoid.” Jack thoroughly checked the bag while you looked for any tracking device on the baby. You found a small patch attached to the small of the child’s back while he found a small tracker embedded in the bag’s lining.

“How paranoid is he?” you ask. “In what world is putting multiple trackers on your baby even necessary?”

“That’s Hyperion, babe. When you are as high up the food chain as he is, you are bound to have people who want to take you down.” He puts both the trackers into a potted plant then you both walk down the halls to his rooms, avoiding cameras as you can. 

You walk into the rooms to see Nisha and Wilhelm lazily sprawled out on couches and Timothy diligently working at the table. You sit down at the table, rummage through the bag and find a collapsible baby rocker. Christine had finally fallen asleep on the journey here so you gently place her into the rocker. You look over to Jack and ask, “I assume you wanted me to make another prosthesis for other-you?”

Timothy’s head jerked up in surprise and glared at Jack, “What are you doing to my face this time? And what about the bomb!” Your eyebrows jumped as you looked back to Jack.

“Don’t worry, my man. I’ll go deactivate the bomb for the time being and it doesn’t hurt that much. At least less than a face transplant would.” Timothy hardly looked reassured, but came over to you for the procedure. Halfway in the baby started crying you turn to go soothe her but Jack waves you aside and picks her up then says in a baby voice, “Oh look at who has a poopy diaper. It’s you, yes it’s you! Come here you little sucker and let’s change it, okay?” You watch him change the diaper then look up at the rest of the room. “What! Do I have something on my face? Why are you all staring?” No one is quite brave enough to express their surprise at Jack’s paternal side, especially since he said the opposite last night. Jack squints his eyes in suspicion, “Is it because I changed a diaper? It is, isn’t it. Believe it or not, I’ve done my fair share of baby wrangling.” In surprised shock, you all return back to work dazed from what you just saw. 

In a hushed whisper you ask Tim, “I thought he said he doesn’t like kids?”  
“Yeah, me too,” Tim replied. “He really doesn’t seem like the sort to be around children.”

“Maybe he has one of his own?”

“That’s possible with the way he gets around, but unlikely. I’ve heard whispers that he was married once, maybe it has to do with that? I don’t know though, I’m new here.”

Your eyebrows shoot up and you ask, “Wait, you’re his body double and you don’t know everything about him? That seems silly.”

“I’ve only spent a few hours at most with him in person. I trained to act like him mostly from videos.” You shrug and lapse into concentrated silence.

Eventually you finish Timothy’s mask and offer to Jack to take the baby back. He waves you aside saying, “I got this, pumpkin. Anyways, I need to make a call to our dear friend Mr. Brown. I believe he’ll get a call that his child is missing right around now.” He goes to sit in a corner and positions his ECHO so Brown will only be able to see him and Christine then turns it on, “Hello Brown,” he says in a chipper voice, “You may be wondering where you dear little Christine is. Wonder no longer! She is right here with me. She’s safe, or at least she is for the next twenty-four hours. Hand over all your shares in the company or I will kill her. Hope to hear from you soon!”

At the mention of killing the baby you frown and the moment he turns off the ECHO ask, “You aren’t actually going to kill her, are you?”

“Nah,” he responds nonchalantly, “Brown will cave eventually. The drive of a father to keep their daughter safe is extremely strong. Also, she is just too cute! I mean look at that face! Almost as cute as…” You notice a dark shadow pass over his face when he faltered. He shakes his head to dispel whatever thought came over him then hands Christine to you. 

You entertain her for about an hour and notice Jack get progressively tense and start pacing. Annoyed by the atmosphere he created you ask, “What’s wrong, Jack?”

“What’s wrong?! What’s wrong?!” he shouts throwing his hands up in the air. “What’s wrong is that Brown hasn’t responded yet! Which means he either doesn’t care about his daughter, or he is sending people to retrieve her. And it is definitely not the first one.”

“Jack. You have two and a half vault hunters, a well-armed medic, and yourself. I don’t think they are going to get through.”

“Hey! Wait! I’m more than half a vault hunter!” shouted Timothy. “I helped save Helios and get to the vault as much as anyone.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sit down before you hurt yourself,” Wilhelm piped up. Timothy indignantly obliged and pouted in his seat.

After thinking a bit Jack replies, “Oh! Wait a minute! I’m a genius! Brown will be coming after me, right? So we put old Timothy here in my bed so he can pretend to be me! Ha! It’s brilliant. Ooo, we can have Wilhelm out in the front room to entertain any guests that come along, Timothy and Nisha in the bed as backup, then ______ and I in the safe room with the baby.”

“Sounds good to me, handsome,” says Nisha sashaying her way over to put her hands on Jack’s chest. “But wouldn’t it be more fun if we were the ones locked in the safe room together, babe?”

“Oh yeah, that would be fun,” Jack says with a smirk on his face. “Only thing is that would mean you would have to take care of the baby.” 

Nisha makes an exaggerated retching noise responding, “I love torture, but not that kind.” You see a faint hint of rejection flash across the woman’s face, but she quickly replaces it with her usual bravado and draped herself over Timothy for the rest of the evening.

Several more hours pass until it gets to be time to sleep. You all take your places: Wilhelm on his usual couch in the living room, Nisha just about pulls Timothy into bed, and Jack and you enter what looks like a closet. Upon entering you notice that it is indeed a small walk-in closet, curious you ask, “This is your safe room?”

“Yep,” Jack answers. “Behind these walls is thick metal paneling. Once activated the door is puts down a door to seal us in. Pretty cool tech, huh. Thought of it myself.”

“Yeah, really cool I guess. Are you going to close it or just stand there looking pretty?”

“Looking pretty, eh,” he says with a quirked eyebrow. “Please do go on, it is always nice to hear how much people adore me.”

You snort, “I meant that as a figure of speech and you know it.” You have no idea how you’ve become so comfortable with this stranger. You have only known him for what? Two days maybe? And you were already comfortably joking with each other. Maybe it is just something in his nature, but you feel somewhat at ease with him despite his erratic behavior. It could have also been that wonderful kiss earlier today. Or the way he held you close. Or maybe the thought of sleeping next to him. You rip yourself from that train of thought and focus back in to Jack who just finished talking about himself.

Jack continues, “Although seriously, babe, don’t hit the button to close the door until the last minute.” You absentmindedly agree then lay down on the makeshift bed. “Aren’t you going to change into something a bit more comfortable? I think those clothes might still be covered in dust from Elpis.”

You raise your eyebrows and say, “Uhh…I don’t have any other clothes to change into.”

“What? Why not? Didn’t you pack anything?”

“No… I believe that a certain someone may have dragged me out of my home and caused people to shoot at me.”

“Hey! I saved you! Those psycho vault hunters would have shot you just for helping me!”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t give you shit for it,” you reply with a smile.

Jack returns your smile and rubs the back of his neck, “I guess I deserve a bit of that. Regardless, here’s some extra clothes of mine for now. Remind me to take you shopping later.” You gratefully accept the change of clothes, put them on, get the baby ready to sleep, and then curl up on the makeshift bed. In your tiredness, you don’t quite notice that the soft look in Jack’s eyes appears again as you prepare for the night when he looks at you with Christine his eyes soften and warm with bittersweet memories.

Just as you are about to fall asleep Christine starts bawling with a grating shriek right into your ear. You groggily sit up and tend to the baby, but it does nothing and she continues to cry. Eventually she calms down again and you are eventually able to drift off to sleep. Once again, right after your eyes start to get heavy she starts crying again. You rush over to her to- bang! The door to the closet slams open to a hardly dressed cowgirl pointing a gun right at your face.

“Shut her up, or I will shut her up for you!” she yells brandishing the gun in the direction of the baby. Before you could respond Jack leaps in between you two, gun drawn and pointed at Nisha.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” he growls at the woman.

“Trying to sleep, that’s what. This thing keeps waking me up!” Nisha yells.

“Let me explain it to you slowly. We need this baby here so I can get the shares from Brown, take down Tassiter, find a vault, and civilize Pandora. So, be a good girl- back off and go to sleep.”

“What do you think I am, Jack? Stupid? Of course I know that you need the baby. However, I do not.” She cocks her gun and points it straight at the baby, but before she can pull the trigger Jack slams her against the wall with one hand on her gun and the other wrapped around her neck.

“Well aren’t you a pretty little traitor? And you know what I do to traitors,” he says as he tightens his grip on her neck. You reach out trying to still his hand, and Jack’s gaze snaps to yours filled with hate and fury. Nisha uses this distraction to wrest free from his grip and run out of the room, but not before hitting the panic button on her way out. A large steel door slams shut right behind her and you hear the protestations of metal as the door firmly locks into place. Jack rails at the door kicking and screaming obscenities. 

You fear getting in between his fruitless fight with the door, but eventually you gingerly state, “Jack, I don’t think that is going to help. If anything, you’re just hurting yourself.” He turns on you, rage still blazing in his eyes, but you see it drain out of him a second later and calm to more of an annoyed frown.

“That damn bitch!” he yells. “Now we won’t be able to make this deal! Stupid, useless bitch!” He plops back onto the makeshift bed and covers his face with his hands.

“Can’t we just open the door again? There has to be a way to open it from the inside. Do you know how?”

“Nope. Nada. Zilch. Not going to happen. I have this room programed to stay locked for twelve hours as an extra security measure to keep people out. However, this is not at all what I had in mind when I installed it. Might as well go back to sleep, we will be stuck in here for a while longer.” He turns over and attempts to go back to sleep as you follow suit. Minutes or maybe an hour of sleeplessness pass when you hear him turn over towards you and ask, “So how does a pretty thing like you end up on Elpis? I mean c’mon there has got to be a story there.” You begin to wonder if he ever stops talking. “I know you want to tell me. Open up to old Jackie here, pumpkin. I won’t stop bothering you until you do.”

You sigh and roll over to face him. His face is so incredibly close to yours that you can feel the last little movements of his breath as he exhales. “Fine. My father was an ex-Dahl soldier and my mom was a medic. They were both stationed on Elpis while Dahl still was there. They died in the Crackening. I worked with Nurse Nina taking care of the people she didn’t want to deal with. Anything else you want to know or can I go back to sleep?”

“Wow. Well that sure is a lot, kiddo.” You couldn’t fully tell if he was being serious or sarcastic, but he continued, “One last question then. I definitely want to ensure you get your beauty sleep. So why were you around Elesser? Were you working with Zarpedon?” His demeanor dangerously dipped at the last question.

“What? No!” you cry out. “A group of Lost Legion thugs kidnapped me about a week before you found me. They were running short on medics so they grabbed the closest one they could find. Although I suppose Nina was just as close, but they probably knew none would come back from that mission.” You could still feel your heart pumping in your chest, but your answer seemed to satisfy him.

Christine picked up on the tension in the room and began to fuss so you turned to care for her. Before you could, Jack reaches hovering mere inches over you to pull the baby into his lap. The softness in his eyes and gentleness to his touch disarm you. How could such a ruthless man be so soft? You gather up your courage and ask, “If were asking questions, mind if I ask one? You seem familiar with children do you have any of your own?”

His posture immediately becomes rigid and he turns to you with flaming rage in his eyes. But when he meets your eyes the fire extinguishes, “You know, you are really lucky we are trapped in here together because I usually kill people for asking personal questions. However, I am not in the mood to hang out with a corpse for hours on end, also you seem pretty decent. So yes, I used to have a daughter.” You didn’t want to press your luck any further so you said goodnight and tried to go back to sleep.


End file.
